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Ketosis isn’t all-or-nothing, and the research explains why.

What Kiwi Science Says About Keto: Professor Grant Schofield’s Research, Explained If you’ve been curious about keto but wary of the wellness-industry hype, it’s worth knowing that some of the most credible research on low-carb, high-fat eating is happening right here in New Zealand — led by Professor Grant Schofield, Professor of Public Health and Director of the Human Potential Centre at AUT. Unlike a lot of keto content online, Schofield’s work isn’t about quick fixes or Instagram transformations. It’s peer-reviewed, published, and grounded in a genuine challenge to the nutrition orthodoxy most of us grew up with. The Problem He’s Trying to Solve Schofield’s research centres on a hypothesis that’s still controversial in mainstream nutrition circles: that the low-fat diet approach and the lipid hypothesis that dominated nutrition advice for decades may have done more harm than good. His team’s work points to chronically high insulin levels — hyperinsulinemia — as a key driver in the development of chronic disease, rather than dietary fat itself. Ketolean That’s a genuinely disruptive idea. It reframes conditions like obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease not as failures of willpower or “eating too much fat,” but as downstream effects of a system chronically overloaded with glucose and insulin. What the Research Actually Shows One of the more practically useful studies to come out of Schofield’s group looked at how different levels of carbohydrate restriction affect people trying to get into ketosis. Researchers tracked blood ketones, “keto flu” symptoms and mood daily over three weeks across very-low, low, and moderately-low carbohydrate diets. A few findings stand out: If you're interested in the studies, the links are here. Ketosis is achievable at more than one carb level. Diets with just 5% of energy from carbohydrates are ketogenic, but diets with 15–25% carbohydrate can also produce meaningful ketone levels, useful to know if strict keto feels unsustainable long-term. ScienceDirect The “keto flu” isn’t inevitable, and it isn’t dose-dependent in the way people assume. There was little meaningful difference in keto-flu symptoms or mood across the very-low, low, and moderate groups. ScienceDirect Energy intake matters more than people think. There was a significant association between how much people ate overall and how their mood responded — a reminder that under-eating on keto can undo a lot of its benefits. ScienceDirect The takeaway from Schofield’s team: carb restriction should be prescribed by individual need, not just to avoid withdrawal symptoms. In other words — there’s no single “correct” level of keto. It’s individual. ScienceDirect Beyond the Lab: What The Fat Schofield took this research out of academic journals and into people’s kitchens with What The Fat, a book he co-wrote with fellow AUT researcher Dr Caryn Zinn and chef Craig Rodger. At its launch, Schofield said the goal was to put health back in the hands of the public, arguing it’s time to change the way nutrition science gets communicated. The book set out the reasoning behind low-carb, healthy-fat eating alongside recipes, bridging the gap between “here’s a study” and “here’s what to actually cook tonight.” AUT A Few Practical Habits Schofield Points To Beyond the carbohydrate research, Schofield’s broader recommendations for metabolic health include having periods of time without eating, occasionally doing longer intermittent fasts, using creatine for brain health, and getting outside into daylight — all habits that pair naturally with a low-carb, animal-based way of eating rather than sitting in opposition to it. Fabulously Keto Why This Matters If You’re Already Eating Animal-Based If you’re already prioritising nutrient-dense, animal-based foods,  organ meats, quality protein and healthy fats, Schofield’s research offers a science-backed reason why that approach tends to work so well metabolically. Keeping insulin low and stable isn’t a fad; it’s a mechanism his team has spent years documenting. And because organs like liver, kidney and heart are some of the most nutrient-dense foods available, they’re a natural fit for anyone eating this way, which is exactly the gap Homegrown Primal’s freeze-dried supplements are designed to fill for people who want the benefits without cooking organ meat themselves.